<p>option one for me. and yes, high school text books are HEAVY. they lessen growth spurts (i should've been at least 2 inches taller than i am now)!!!</p>
<p>I think option 1 is the most practical and cost effective. For one thing, it's cheap. Zippers cost 2 cents. Most importantly, it satisfies both of those people who doesn't like change, and those that want change. The students that prefer textbooks the way they are right now can simply not use the zippers. But for those students who prefer lighter backpacks, the zippers is great. </p>
<p>It takes very little effort to zip/unzip. And you only need to do it like what? every month? how long does a class take to finish 1 or 2 chapters? The whole time I can keep the section in my class folder and it won't get lost. I can keep the regular book in my home always and still be able to do classwork, or study at school or whatever. And in the rare case that I do lose a section, I can probabily just reorder that specific section from the publisher. Heck a lot cheaper than paying for a new book. (if it get lost)</p>
<p>Option 2 is not for me. I would hate worrying about when the memory card would not read, or when the batteries will die. Especially before tests. </p>
<p>Imagine the first day of class, and the teacher announces:" welcome back to school. Today we will first learn how to read! You flip pages by pressing....and if you want to go back and forth between various pages, you have to first..." "By the way, be reeeaaally careful when you carry the thing in the hallways because if you drop it you pay $200. "</p>
<p>In my school most books have a class set and a stay at home set. The ones that don't come with a cd-rom and we use that at home instead of a book. so its really easy....</p>
<p>Just get text books the way they are right now. For a lot of us, we need to be able to flip to any part of the text book at any time. If you are under the illusion that real world physics problems only require one chapter of the book at a time, you haven't seen what's out there.</p>
<p>Mind over matter.....I don't mind, so it doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Our school system can't afford new textbooks anyway, so my opinion doesn't count. Option one sounds theoretically handy, but I don't carry too many textbooks around with me in the first place.</p>
<p>I don't really like either option.</p>
<p>What I would like are textbooks that are composed mostly of - you got it - text. Too many of the books us high-schoolers lug around these days are bloated monstrosities, filled with full-page pictures, oversized print, and idiotic activities in sidebars that will go unnoticed. If a teacher wants to give me something a bit out-of-the-ordinary to work on, put it in the teacher's edition. Every school I've ever been in has more than ample photocopying resources - they should be utilized.</p>
<p>A math textbook should be written to teach me math. A chemistry textbook should be written to teach me chemistry. Both should do this well with their primary tool - the text. This is why they call them textbooks. Everything else is corollary. I don't mind deviations from this, if they prove useful. Pictures, graphs and the like should not be too oversized. They should supplement the text rather than distract from it. I don't need a full-page macro shot of a frog in my biology textbook - it's just bling. It serves no useful purpose.</p>
<p>I want pragmatic textbooks. I want efficient textbooks. I want textbooks that teach, rather than attempt to entertain. My back and my brain will both give thanks.</p>
<p>Yes, Asian textbooks are so much lighter. However, paperback books always get destroyed in my backpack. I like sagar_indurkhya's idea of making each textbook into two volumes. My history textbook was like that sophomore year- it was so nice. Except those books were also paperback and the covers were nearly shredded by the end of the year. If traditional hardcover textbooks could be split in half it would be perfect- lighter, but still sturdy enough to survive the year.</p>
<p>My physics textbook is online this year...but since it takes so long to load each page, I usually just bring the book home with me anyways...</p>
<p>two sets of books would obviously be the best option.
the only problem is most districts don't have the money to get textbooks.
the price on textbooks nowadays is utterly ridiculous, at 80-100 dollars a pop.</p>